It seems like such a short time ago that I started doing my "Faces of Culpeper" blog. In actuality it is well over three and a half years since my first one. Conservatively, I estimate that I have featured over five hundred faces in this blog. I have only repeated two faces that I know of. That's quite a few "peperheads" that have been in my photos in this space. The "Snapshots of Culpeper" in the Culpeper Times is younger but still is a bit over three years old. Soooo....come February I will have completed my fourth year of this blog.... time flies. I have slowed down on the number of blogs but not on the great faces in each one.
Let's get on with it.
Let's start this edition with local artist Beau Curtis who can be found all over town drawing and painting. He also goes on the road to other areas. In addition to selling those works he has already completed he accepts commissions for personalized work. He may be emailed at Greywolf32105@Yahoo.com
I received an invitation to visit Cornucopia Volunteer Farm Foundation which is located on Cherry Hill Road. This is a project to "plant, maintain, and harvest fresh produce and proteins for the hungry in Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock counties" and is managed by Chuck Jackson. This organization is supported by the donations of individuals, churches, groups and grants. Here are some volunteers in action. They are: Lindsey Dolan, Michael Watts (local veterinarian), Emily Watts (recently enrolled in Va Tech studying Agriculture) and Rebecca Watts. The two youngest girls are students at Epiphany Catholic School.
I stopped in to the Chrysalis Counseling Center the other day. I had been planning to do it for some time, but just hadn't.....no good reason....just hadn't. For about four years since I moved here I had been distressed by the terrible condition of the building that was to become this counseling center. I remember reading in the Star Exponent that someone named Elsie A. Stevenson had purchased the building and I was hopeful that she would improve it....at least a little. Wow! Were my expectations ever low. She made it into a showpiece and improved Culpeper at great deal with the renovation that I could see that she had done. It was not, however, until I went inside that I experienced the true beauty of the transformation. The inside of the building, in my opinion, is spectacular! The big plus to our community is that Chrysalis can provide the counseling and therapy that many in our community are in need of. Elise is impressive and engaging. I had fun talking to her. I supervised the 700 plus school counselors in Fairfax County Public Schools and so my heart is with mental help services. Now I see that they have taken over the car dealership building plus another building in the back. This program is on the move and we are the winners!
This is Eric Moon. He is my next door neighbor along with his family. He is the manager of the Mosby Meadow Market which is his family business. It is a very nice convenience store and is located on Rixeyville Road directly across from the roller skating rink. One of their claims to fame is that they sold a million dollar Powerball ticket....... but not to me! Dang, it!!!
I have noted several times that we have several interesting older men in Culpeper. It will not be too long before I will join their ranks......well, I hope it will be several years, but anyway, this guy is one of them. He is Steve Sabol and I stopped him in Walmart for a chat concerning his tattoos. Right away he said they were "the most foolish thing I have ever done!" I found out that Steve was a navy vet and that he served from 1951 until 1970. I hope he won't mind if I reveal at this point that he lied about his age so that he could enlist at age 17. Steve is a life long resident of Culpeper. I was checking on the tattoos because I am currently working on another blog on tattoos that people in Culpeper have. Steve has the variety of tattoos that servicemen wore "in the day." At that time tattoos were not common, but were often worn by our warriors. One of his says, "Death Before Dishonor." The other one is an eagle. He is a really interesting and upbeat guy. It was my pleasure to have met him. Sometimes I just get lucky. He will also be in my tattoo blog which I will post sometime soon. 
It seems like the signs are everywhere that Culpeper is growing and the economy is recovering. Sports Authority is a well known national store that just opened a store next to TJMAXX. They had a gala grand opening and had lots of people came to check what they had to offer. It is a nice large store with lots of interesting sports related merchandise. I think this could be a big deal for Culpeper....I hope so. This is the manager Ben Hoskyn who moved here from Virginia Beach to run the store.
It is the season for mums, mums and more mums! It seems that almost every store I go into is selling them this year. We bought three huge plants this fall....beautiful yellow plants. Two for our front porch and one for our deck. I even bought a normal size mum for the flower garden that I made just this year. This is Laura Allen. I met her when we stopped by the Shenandoah Garden Spot to check out their excellent selection of.....you guessed it.....mums! I only spoke with her briefly, but she was a most upbeat lady. I learned that she moved to Culpeper from Maine about six years ago. She recently joined the staff at Shenandoah Garden Spot.
Halloween is just a great time of year. Every day....often several times a day....I drive past the "pumpkin patch" on the corner of 29 and Ira Hoffman. What a cool place....especially for kids. In addition to hundreds of pumpkins, they have treats and recreation items.....in particular a bounce house. I stopped by and found this cute family schooling their baby early on the fine art of pumpkin purchasing. The dad is Gordon Mackison and he is a fire fighter. Mom is Cheyenne Fowler and she is a medical assistant at Medical Express. Grandpa is David Fowler and he is a park policeman. Baby is Paige Mackison and she is...well....a baby!
There are so many great things that happen in Culpeper that I am not aware of....and I'll bet that I am not the only one lacking in certain awareness. For example: I had no idea that there is a group in Culpeper called, The Early Childhood Work Group which is a part of Healthy Culpeper. Yep, there is such a group and I spoke with Tracey Forloines who has the title of coach with the Work Group. They were having an information activity in Yowell Meadow Park on Saturday. They were encouraging, "Community awareness for the citizens to know about resources for kids." Right there at their program were these three, Sergeant Jeff Dodson of the Culpeper Police Dept., McGruff (really explorer police cadet Rebecca Hilmick) and explorer police cadet Marcus Tyler.
I have noted a couple of times in this blog that I love the reality shows that deal with restoring older cars. I saw this 1977 Chevrolet El Camino in the parking lot at LOWES and had to feature it in my blog. The first thing that hit me was how long it is. I looked up the dimensions and it is 216 inches long. That is 18 feet, if my math is correct! Dats long!!!! I had a 1977 Ford station wagon when my family was young and it seemed extra long to me so I looked up the length of that wagon vs. this car (pickup...whatever...it is a hybrid). My wagon was long....225 inches which is roughly 18 and 1/2 feet! That was the last year that the American car companies made those behemoths, but they are sooo fun to look at and remember. Before I asked this guy whose name is Doug Furr if I could take a picture of him with his car, I watched him for a few minutes. He walked around the car a couple of times and would touch it here and there and brush it with his hand.....he loves this vehicle. He has been restoring it for a while and is getting close to completion. I think it is beautiful!!!! Doug is a retired guy who has lived in Culpeper for the last ten years. He worked for 43 years at Shoppers Food Warehouse!
Well, that is going to wrap up this edition of "Faces of Culpeper." Hope you enjoyed seeing our citizens and sometimes even learning about them. If you would like to you may write to me at:
Be sure to check out my weekly contribution to the Culpeper Times, "Rich Crowley's Snapshot of Culpeper."
